Leftovers

Some people work out their Christmas meat very carefully so they don't have many left overs but I love leftovers. First, I love a Christmas sandwich and I like to be inventive about what to make.

This year, I was at my Mum's for Boxing Day, where she made a great buffet, and I had my sister round the next evening, so my leftovers had a day to sit and relax! I made the turkey breast by setting it in an oven proof dish with the gravy. This way, the leftover meat which is usually not as good as what you had on Christmas Day can benefit from the gravy juices as it heats up. I also made a recipe from my 'Nigella Express' book - a very welcome Christmas present - a potatoe and mushroom gratin. In the recipe, she finely slices potatoes. keeping the skins on, and part cooks them with some full fat milk (enough to cover the tatties) and some white wine (I added a tbsp for each portion), while cooking finely sliced mushrooms in garlic and butter and oil. I followed the same outline but I had some cream left over, and it is the season of indulgence, so I added that to my potatoes. I also used more garlic because I love it and added a spoonful of mustard. It worked very well - a tasty alternative to roasties.

After that, I cut up the rest of the meat and divided it into freezer bags. It is always nice to have home roast poultry in the freezer to use when you are to busy to actually go through the rigmarole of roasting something when you are late in from a busy day at work.

Another left over I have is some mincemeat from making mince pies, so for New Year I am going to make a 'christmas' apple crumble. You make up your crumble ingredients as usual but to make use of the mincemeat I put a layer of apple on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of the mincemeat, the the rest of the apple. It makes for a really good pudding on a cold day.